President Donald Trump says he decided to put a pause on some tariffs he had placed on Canada and Mexico in an effort to help the countries and American automakers.
On March 4, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports. However, the next day, he put in a one-month pause on the tariffs on the auto sector, and a day after that, he introduced another month-long pause on the products that fall under the USMCA.
He told Fox News he put the short-term pause in place to help Canada, Mexico, and U.S. carmakers.
“I wanted to help Mexico and Canada to a certain extent,” Trump said during a Fox News interview posted on March 7.
“We’re a big, big country, and they do a lot of their business with us. Whereas in our case, it’s much less significant. We do very little with Canada by comparison.”
Trump also said he wanted to help American car manufacturers. The auto industry has said tariffs will increase the cost of doing business in the United States.
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Trump has talked about the possibility of making more vehicles in the United States.
Besides the first round of tariffs, which Trump said are meant to get Canada and Mexico to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration through their borders, he has ordered 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from all countries starting on March 12.
He has also asked his officials to review existing trade agreements, and to suggest reciprocal tariffs by April 2 for any trade practice by other countries that are deemed unfair.
“What they charge us, we charge them. It’s a big deal, but what they charge us, we charge them,” he said.
On March 7, Trump said he will impose reciprocal tariffs on Canadian lumber and dairy products to match the duties Canada charges for shipping the products to the United States.
Canada has a supply management system for dairy, chicken, egg, and turkey products that controls imports of the products to create stable prices for farmers and consumers.
Trump has also said he’ll be changing environmental standards to encourage more lumber production in the United States. The country already imposes a 14.54 percent tariff on lumber imported from Canada.
“We’ve been ripped off at levels never seen before, and all we’re going to do is get it back. We’re going to get a lot of it back. We’re not going to let people take advantage of us anymore,” Trump said.
Canada’s Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc has said that Ottawa would be willing to have early talks on the U.S.–Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, which is up for joint review in 2026.
LeBlanc said Ottawa would prefer to work out an agreement in one negotiation rather than go sector by sector over the course of several weeks. He said Canada would want to move quickly to prevent China from hurting markets with predatory pricing.
China on March 8 put tariffs on over $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products. The move was in response to import duties Canada imposed on Chinese-made electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products.
Kimberly Hayek and Reuters contributed to this article.
